Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The television series I'll Fly Away has remained with me since it aired in 1991. It was set in the late 1950's and early 1960's and aired for two seasons on NBC from 1991 to 1993. Then like many intelligent TV USA shows on the three networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) it was cancelled, short-changing people like me. PBS aired the episodes again, but only once. PBS also apparently sponsored a 2 hour wrap up of the storylines that were left after season 2 had been cancelled by NBC. I am assuming that PBS may still own the rights to this series. If they do, they most definitely should air it again, but maybe forever the series will be kept from us. What a shame that will be. With some of the music used on the series, perhaps that is an issue. I don't know.

It would be so wonderful to have the opportunity to purchase the series on DVDs. There is such junk on TV and it is put on DVDs. How about some quality from past series, such as I'll Fly Away?

I found some old VHS tapes that I have with the show recorded on them. The tape has degraded over time and it has proven difficult to transfer them to DVDS. After searching for the series professionally done on DVD and finding that the series has never been for sale, I have tried to salvage what I have. Some of the recordings unfortunately were mistakenly recorded over.

I believe the clips in the video below are from the very first episode. I am not positive, but it appears to be.

From the ending monologue at the end of this I'll Fly Away episode:Lilly ~ "Everybody's got their troubles. That's a fact. Everybody lives in their own world. And everybody lives in the same world. Maybe, if I understood other people better, I'd have a better fix on myself. I feel like I'm trying to be something I'm supposed to be. But, I don't know who that is. Mr. Bedford seems me to be a man who's also trying to be something he thinks he's supposed to be. But there's something inside him that wants to get out."

......................................................

......................................................I'LL FLY AWAY ~ created by Joshua Brand and John Falsey ~ "Everybody's got their own troubles" [HQ] ~12:38

This video is made from a degraded video tape, generated down: dvd, then Quick Time, compressed in software editing program and here at Facebook again. It includes the opening and ending of the two hour Christmas special.

Who owns the TV Series I'll Fly Away today? I just sent this email text to PBS/WGBH (feedback@wgbh.org) regarding I'll Fly Away:

Dear PBS,

If PBS still owns the rights to the TV series I'll Fly Away, I would like to request PBS consider airing it again. It is an extraordianary show, with wonderful writing and excellent presentation. It is not available on DVD and the many people who loved it do not have the opportunity to see it again. With all the racist undertones at the present time in the USA, it would be healthy for the country's people to see it.

Thank you for your interest in WGBH. We always appreciate hearing from our viewers, listeners, and Web site visitors.

The program you cited, I'll Fly Away, is not currently scheduled to air on any of WGBH's channels. However, we have relayed your request for WGBH to air an encore of this program to our broadcast manager. In the meantime, you can check for an encore performance from time to time at our website, WGBH.org. On the left navigation bar, choose "TV" then "Programs A-Z" (the first letter of your program - or series, if that applies). If your program is scheduled it will appear in the list with air dates included.

We hope you continue to enjoy the programs on WGBH - produced in Boston, shared with the world.

To support the WGBH programs and services you enjoy every day, we urge you to contact us at 617-300-3300 (M-F, 9-5) - or at 800-492-1111 at other times - or pledging online at http://www.wgbh.org/pledge.

Sincerely,WGBH Member Services

WGBH enriches people's lives through programs and services that educate, inspire, and entertain, fostering citizenship and culture, the joy of learning, and the power of diverse perspectives.

After the program's cancellation, a two hour movie, I'll Fly Away: Then and Now, was produced, in order to resolve dangling storylines from Season 2, and provide the series with a true finale. The movie aired on October 11, 1993 on PBS. Its major storyline closely paralleled the true story of the 1955 murder of Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi. Thereafter, PBS began airing repeats of the original episodes, ceasing after one complete showing of the entire series.

The series takes its name from a Christian hymn written in 1929 by Albert E. Brumley.

Trivia ~

Series creators Joshua Brand and John Falsey have stated that the inspiration for the series was the classic 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird. While the film centers around attorney Atticus Finch and his family, the pair wondered about the life of Calpurnia, the Finches' African-American maid. Her story goes unexplored in the movie. A serious and seemingly well-educated individual who is respected by her employers, Calpurnia is the inspiration for the character Lilly Harper in I'll Fly Away.

The role of Nathaniel "Nathan" Bedford originally went to Jason London. When he had to turn it down because of a scheduling conflict, his identical twin brother Jeremy London auditioned and won the role. When a scheduling conflict prevented Jeremy from appearing in the series finale I'll Fly Away: Then and Now, Jason took Jeremy's place.

Sam Waterston and Regina Taylor were reunited in 1994 when Taylor guest-starred in the fifth-season Law & Order episode "Virtue".

Each episode features an opening and closing narration by Lilly, each one an excerpt from an entry in her diary. In the series finale, it is revealed that the diary forms the basis of a book written by Lilly in the early 1990s entitled I'll Fly Away.

^ The episode "Some Desperate Glory" (Season 1, Episode 9) depicts the marquee of a local movie theater, listing Auntie Mame as the main feature. This film was first released in the United States in December 1958, implying that the first season of I'll Fly Away takes place in 1958 and 1959. However, in "The Slightest Distance" (Season 1, Episode 22), a U.S. Justice Department official remarks that a "new administration" about to take office. Clearly a reference to President John F. Kennedy, this would place the first season's latter episodes between the November 8, 1960 election and the January 20, 1961 inauguration.

^ The episode "Slow Coming Dark" (Season 1, Episode 17) depicts an automobile with alicense plate registered in "Bryland", as opposed to one of the 50 states. A subsequent episode, "Freedom Bus" (Season 2, Episode 6), depicts a motorcycle with a similar license plate.

^ The notion that Georgia is the setting for the series finds credence in several episodes. In "The Third Man" (Season 2, Episode 10), Forrest Bedford coerces a Klan infiltrator into maintaining his cover by threatening to have him imprisoned in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. In "State" (Season 2, Episode 16), Lilly Harper – while discussing a freedom school to be opened in Bryland – mentions the possibility of using students from Morehouse College (a historically Black college in Atlanta) as teachers. Moreover, in the final scene of "State", two African-American students (one male, one female) are shown integrating the local state university, with federal troops protecting them from a mob of jeering White students. The scene is reminiscent of the 1961 integration of the University of Georgia by Hamilton E. Holmes and Charlayne Hunter. Finally, in the series finale I'll Fly Away: Then and Now, Lilly reads from a novel she has written, one which is clearly based upon her own life. The protagonist of the novel states that she was born in "a small Southern town located on a parched southwestern plot of Georgian soil."

10 Comments:

I am French I live in Rodez (France). I liked your videos. I like very much the actor Sam Waterston especially in the movie "The Matthew Shepard Story"That think you of the ONG " REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL ". This ONG also helps the refugees of the Darfur.

Thanks so much for posting this--I used to watch I'll Fly Away as a child with my father and I loved the show. I have tried over the years to find it. I agree not only should PBS re-air the show it would be so nice to be able to purchase the series! I will be contacting PBS as well!

Thanks so much for this post--I watched I'll Fly Away as a child with my father and always loved it. I have tried over the years to find it again. I agree that PBS should re-air the show and it would be even better to be able to purchase the series! I will be contacting them as well.

I stumbled on your blog after trying to recall the fragment from the episode in which the (I believe) Governor of the state asked Forrest (in the garden of his Colonial Home) to run for political office on the concept that those with intelligent thoughts should feel a public duty toward society.The series had many beautiful lessons in it, that appearently did not impress the crowds.I am thankful that thousands of miles from my dutch home WGBH(Rebecca Eaton)has co-produced so much that I love to play on my TV-set: Our Mutual Friend (substitutes the Bible for me as a non-religous person), Hornblower (intelligent bare knuckle: You had better chosen a lord for a father ..), Parade's End are easily available on DVD. French quality Period Drama(I love Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe work, especially: Les Maitres de l' Orge) is hard or even impossible to get on DVD, and in German it is also hard (Dresden, Unsere Mütter unsere Vater, Schiller). It is as bad as it gets in my own language (In Flanders Fields). I believe most tears are selectively shed worldwide on youtube over the absurd absence on DVD of Piers Haggard's tear-jerker "A Summers Story" starring Imogen Stubbs and James Wilby.

HelloI really enjoyed your post! I'm from Brazil and I was looking for information about this TV show when I found your blog. I'm looking for that TV show to watch and I can't find anywhere. Can you direct me to a site where I can see this episodes? Thanks!!!

Links to this post:

About Me

I love my life. I love where I live. And I am passionate about my passions. I love to dance. Necessary to live: music, piano, singing, writing, acting, painting.
I have been fighting for and supporting the arts all my adult life. Since 2004, I have been working with other activists to end the Darfur genocide.
I have traveled to Europe many times since my early twenties. Places I have been: many USA states including Hawaii, Montreal, Canada, Barbados, France, Spain, Luxembourg, England, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Germany - and have wonderful memories.
My last trip was in May - June 2013 to Spain.
I would like to travel to Europe and Kyoto, Japan.
I love the southwest where I have visited Hopi, Navajo, Zia and San Idlefonso potters.
Life is exciting and I intend to live it full-out to the end.
B.S. and M.M., both in music

Genocide is not only a word,
it is crying of the whole human race.
There is nothing redeeming about being silent
when speaking up is the humane thing to do.
The honor and integrity of the human race is at stake.

"...And these for whom life has no repose, live at times in their rare moments of happiness with such strength and indescribable beauty, the spray of their moment's happiness is flung so high and dazzingly over the wide sea of suffering, that the light of it, spreading its radiance, touches others too with its enchantment..." Hemann Hesse STEPPENWOLF